- Adults who buy alcohol for teenagers have been branded irresponsible by the borough's top cop as a crack down on the crime is announced. The police have joined forces with Richmond upon Thames Council warning those who buy alcohol for under-18s, they are committing a serious criminal offence and are fuelling antisocial behaviour. Mystery shopper sting operations run by the council are catching traders who sell alcohol to children, but this is undermined by adults who buy the drink then pass it onto them. This week an appeal has been put out calling on anyone who suspects that an adult may be breaking the law to call their local safer neighbourhood team. Your Local Guardian
- A Lerwick woman paid a high price at Lerwick Sheriff Court yesterday morning (Thursday) when she was fined £200 for buying a pint of lager for a 15 year old boy in the town's Thule Bar, in February this year. Julie Walterson, of Goodlad Crescent, pleaded guilty to the charge when she appeared before sheriff Graeme Napier. The sheriff told Walterson that he regarded this as a serious matter and expressed "significant concern" as to how easy it was for youngsters in Shetland to get access to alcohol. The Shetland News
- Seven licensed premises in north east Fife have been charged with selling alcohol to youngsters under the age of 18 in the last two months. The latest pub to fail the test was caught out during an operation on Friday, which resulted in a licensee and a member of staff being charged by police for selling alcohol to two 16-year-olds. The charges have been made as part of operation 'Alcopop', which is part of a test-purchasing scheme being piloted in Fife. The pilot was launched in June and uses 16-year-olds to attempt to buy alcohol from a variety of licensed premises. Test purchasing had previously been illegal, but a new section of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 has been introduced which allows Fife Constabulary to authorise youths to buy or attempt to buy alcohol in order to determine whether an offence is being committed. Fife Today
- Lancashire is on the verge of a devastating epidemic of liver failure, heart disease and early death, experts warned yesterday. There are fears that under-age binge drinkers are risking serious long term damage after new figures revealed almost 450 teenagers were treated at hospitals across the county after hitting the bottle. The statistics, revealed to MPs following questions to the Department of Health, show that from April 2004 to March 2005, 447 under-18s were admitted to hospital for 'alcohol related conditions' in the Lancashire and Cumbria strategic health authority area. During the same period, 6,763 adults were treated for alcohol-related problems. The figure for under-18s is the third highest in the country, with only Manchester (642) and Cheshire and Merseyside (546) having a bigger problem. Preston Today
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